Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 6: National Conference today described the resolution passed by the Assembly on Goods and Services Tax (GST) as “vague, ambiguous and anti-people” and said that they will boycott the rest of the Assembly session.
The NC Core Group meeting chaired by party president Dr Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar today observed that the statement of Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu on the floor of the House terming the Article 370 of the Constitution of India as an obstruction to the development and progress of the State, reflects the machinations of the ruling dispensation against the special political and Constitutional identity of J&K.
The Core Group meeting which was attended by party working president Omar Abdullah, general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, senior leaders and Core Group Members Abdul Rahim Rather, Mohammad Shafi Uri, Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Akbar Lone, Mian Altaf, Syed Aga Ruhullah Mehdi and provincial president Jammu Devender Singh Rana, expressed that it is evident that the PDP has committed its total support to BJP’s ideological design to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution of India. The party Core Group warned the PDP-BJP Government that this misadventure is going to have wider ramifications and dangerous consequences.
“In the garb of evolving a ‘consensus’, the State Government called a special session of the legislature to commit a monumental fraud on the people of Jammu and Kashmir by not explaining the contours of the safeguards in the GST regime that they have been repeatedly talking about over the last more than a month. The ruling alliance has used their majority in the Legislature to muzzle the voice that reflected the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on this crucial and sensitive issue”, the Core Group stated.
The Core Group also noted with concern the BJP State chief Sat Sharma’s statement on the floor of the House that the GST implementation was “the biggest slap on the face of the separatists”, which is a glaring contradiction of earlier misleading assertions made by the PDP-BJP alliance wrongly claiming that the extension of GST to the State was purely a taxation matter and had nothing to do with the politics and the identity of the State.
“The party felt that the PDP has yet again exposed the hollowness of its deceitful, much-touted political agenda of ‘Self Rule’ with the sole objective of remaining glued to political power. However, the Core Group reiterated that National Conference would continue to fight for the rights and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The party further said that it has always stood for the ‘Idea of Jammu and Kashmir’ as perceived and conceived by the founders of the party and would go to any extent to preserve it”, the Core Group added.
The Core Group further decided that the National Conference legislators will boycott the remaining part of the Legislature session as a protest against the Government’s machinations to trample the aspirations of the people by demolishing the State’s special status.
Meanwhile, People’s Democratic Front (PDF) president and MLA Khansahib Hakim Mohammad Yasin has also decided to boycott the remaining special session of the Assembly in protest against the House adopting a resolution to implement the GST in the State.
In a press statement issued here, Hakim Yasin said, “The reason for which the Special Session of the Assembly was called, has lost its relevance as “anti-people GST resolution” which compromises with the special status of the State, has already been passed, which is a plot to trample the aspirations of Kashmiris by demolishing the State’s special status. Under these circumstances, the Special Session has lost its relevance.”
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